


Episode 12: Mosaic

by Kako_Pumpkin



Series: Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 Rewrite [12]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mosaic, ghost ship - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-30 02:38:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12098886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kako_Pumpkin/pseuds/Kako_Pumpkin
Summary: When the Legends investigate a distress signal coming from a ship trapped in the Time Stream, it quickly becomes a fight for survival that will send shivers down your spine.(Even Time Masters had their ghost stories, after all...)Episode 12 of a full 22-episode rewrite of season 2 - the same broad story arc, but rewritten episodes. Welcome to our Mid-Season Finale!





	1. Chapter 1

**Scene:** We see the familiar sight of the Waverider, except that it’s not rushing anywhere – it’s travelling gently through the timestream. Inside the ship the crew are relaxing on the control deck, with Sara frowning at the console.

“No aberrations?” she says. “No distortions? Nothing from the compass?”

Jax snorts. “Hey, we should count ourselves lucky. It’s nice not to have a disaster every fifteen minutes.”

“Agreed,” says Stein. Ray perks up.

“Yeah! What with everything that’s happened in the last few missions, I think some downtime –”

An alarm goes off and everyone startles to attention. Mick, who has been lounging in one of the chairs with a beer, begrudgingly wakes up. “Jinxed it,” he sighs.

Sara snaps. “Gideon, what’s going on?”

“It would appear to be a distress signal coming from somewhere nearby. I’m attempting to pinpoint its source location now.”

“A distress signal?” exclaims Stein. “ _In_ the timestream?”

“On screen, Gideon,” says Sara. “I want to see what we’re dealing with.” The screen pops up immediately; all that can be seen is the familiar multi-coloured throes of the ever-moving time stream.

“Certainly, Captain Lance, but my sensors –”

Gideon’s voice glitches for a moment. The team glances at each other.

“…Gideon?” says Sara. Ray exclaims, and everyone looks up to the screen. On the screen, as though the timestream itself was made up of slips of cloth being slowly pulled away, a dark shape is gradually revealed onscreen. It’s a huge time ship – not mammoth but certainly bigger than the Waverider, although the shape is very similar. The metal is dark grey and black, and there are no lights coming from either the windscreens or any other area.

 

**INTRO SEQUENCE**

**Narration [Gideon’s Voice]:** All of history is vulnerable to attack. Once an organisation called the Time Masters stood as the protectors of time, but their corruption and the actions of a small, brave group caused their downfall. Now this group is all that stands between the timeline and certain disaster. One could not technically classify these people as heroes. But for certain, they are _Legends._

 

 **Scene:** The scene changes to the time stream outside the Waverider, and we pan over the mystery ship. It looks derelict, ancient, and it hangs slightly off balance – clearly it hasn’t been powered in an incredibly long time. The time stream licks across the edges of the ship, barely moving the dead weight. The Waverider approaches it cautiously from one side.

 

 **Scene:** Back inside the Waverider, the team is watching the screen with various degrees of curiosity and suspicion.

“Was that…always there?” says Amaya.

Stein looks worried. “How did our sensors not pick up on that?”

Jax is frowning. “They should have. Something that big –”

“Maybe a cloaking device?” suggests Ray.

Jax shakes his head. “There shouldn’t be anything that can remain stationary for so long in the time stream. Sooner or later, it’d get spit out.”

“It looks abandoned,” says Amaya.

“There’s a distress signal, though,” Ray points out.

Mick grunts. “Probably a trap.”

“How long can a distress signal run if the ship has been abandoned?” asks Stein. Jax shrugs.

“Unless it’s turned off…indefinitely. Some time ships can even pull energy directly from the time stream in an emergency.”

Sara interrupts. “Well, we can at least try to find out if someone’s on board to answer. Gideon, are you there?”

“Always, Captain Lance.”

“What happened earlier?”

“I am afraid you will have to narrow the parameters of your query.”

Sara can’t help but grin at the snark. “You cut off, earlier. Everything all right? You need us to do some kind of diagnostics on you?”

“Certainly not, Captain,” says Gideon. “All Time Master A.I.s are capable of self-maintenance.”

“It’s true,” says Jax. “I might fix the ship, but Gideon’s on another level.”

Sara puts her hands up. “All right, just asking…you sounded like you glitched earlier, is all. You said we got a distress signal. Open channels and see if we can get a response.”

“Very well, Captain Lance. Establishing a connection now.”

Everyone winces and groans as a horrible amount of static screeches through the air.

“Ugh, Gideon!” says Sara. “What was that?”

“It would appear that the systems from the other ship have been extensively damaged. My attempts to communicate with the on-board A.I. are being met with complete failure.”

“But can you still communicate with it?” asks Amaya.

“I am currently attempting to do so, but there appears to be significant interference, the source of which I have yet to identify.”

“Their system’s out, then?” asks Ray.

“It would appear so – I cannot even be certain if the A.I. is still operative. It _is_ possible for a ship to be piloted without an A.I., of course, but it makes time jumping extremely dangerous.”

Jax pipes up. “Not to mention the fact that anything strong enough to take out the A.I. functions in a ship is gonna be more than enough to mess with the engines and navigation.”

Ray steps forward, looking a bit excited. “Okay – so are we going to take a look? I mean – we can either save people, or – I mean –”

Amaya intervenes. “If the residents are deceased, we should bury them properly. Try to find out what happened. It may be something that we’ll have to avoid with _this_ ship.”

Sara nods. “Right. Might as well figure out how their system broke. Can’t have the same thing happening to you, Gideon.”

“I assure you, Captain Lance, that my diagnostics are perfectly capable of catching any potential errors. It is how all A.I.s are designed. Any faults with an A.I. system are almost always caused by external factors.”

“Nobody’s omniscient, Gideon,” says Sara.

“I respectfully disagree.”

“She _does_ have a database with all our brain scans in it,” Mick points out.

“And I sincerely promise not to do anything evil with it.”

Sara puts her hand up. “All right, all right. Gideon, you really can’t make any connection with the ship?”

“It will take a few minutes at least to sort through the disarray. My earlier attempts resulted in a minor incongruity with the communication output in my sensors, likely due to the age of the other system itself. However, I am confident that I will be able to establish some kind of connection, although it is likely to be extremely limited.”

“Will we still have communications?” asks Sara.

“Certainly.”

“Then we’re going in,” Sara decides. Stein steps forward.

“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea –”

Mick interrupts. “You scared?”

Stein bristles. “I--I most certainly am not! I am simply trying to point out –”

Jax interrupts. “Try and sell that to somebody who doesn’t have a psychic connection with you, Grey. It’s not exactly a welcoming-looking ship, is it?”

Stein deflates, and Sara pats his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, professor, we’ve faced much worse than this. We’ll be fine. Gideon?”

“I’ll prepare the airlock for connection and transportation.”

“Good,” says Sara. “And while you’re at it, keep trying to make contact with the ship; see if you can get control of their functions. It might be nice to have some breathable air while we’re in there.”

“Noted, Captain.”

Jax rubs his hands together. “Guess we’d better suit up, huh!”

He grins and nudges Stein, who’s looking extremely unenthused about the mission. Ray pats his shoulder and gives Stein an understanding look before walking out – he can clearly sympathise with Stein’s hesitance and worry about what the ship might hold. The others begin to filter out of the control room and Stein is last, looking up at the screen with a grimace. On the screen is a picture of the mystery ship, still dark and abandoned and thoroughly ominous, just floating in the timestream…

 

 **Scene:** Everyone is gathered into the airlock area, suited up, with Sara coming in last.

“Gideon. Nearly done?” she says.

“The docking process should be finished momentarily, Captain Lance. I am currently attempting to equalise the air pressure within the other ship.”

“What about life support?” asks Ray. “Shouldn’t we be wearing some kind of, well –”

“Suit?” says Mick, not even looking over. Ray grimaces.

Sara doesn’t intervene, just tilts her head back to the wall. “I’m hoping you’ve managed to activate some kind of life support over there Gideon, or this mission is going to get very uncomfortable, very fast.”

“The means of communicating with a defunct, ancient ship is somewhat more complicated than it sounds, I’m afraid. However, I have managed to engage basic life support and emergency lighting. The rest will be up to you.”

“You can’t interact any further with the system?” asks Stein.

“I’m afraid not,” replies Gideon. “Even if I could break through whatever is blocking me, it would be extremely dangerous at this point to engage on a deeper level with the system without fully knowing what exactly transpired. I would recommended heading directly towards the control deck, where you can engage a manual reset of all systems.”

“Gotcha,” says Sara. The light on the door goes green, and she glances back at the team. “Keep sharp. We don’t know what’s waiting for us in there.”

Stein hedges. “Perhaps I should –”

Jax rolls his eyes and propels Stein forward. “C’mon, Grey. What happened to Space Cadet?”

Stein deflates. The others follow through. Mick glances to the side, and, seeing Len, looks away quickly. Len is having none of it and frowns at him, moving closer. The others have already walked into the little tunnel to go into the other ship, so the two of them are alone. Len tries to go in front of Mick and block his way, but Mick shys away and tries to walk past. Len frowns harder.

“ _Mi_ _ck._ You can’t ignore me forever. _Tell_ me this isn’t fishy.”

“It’s space. You can’t get fish here.”

“Don’t play dumb with me. I can’t help you anymore, Mick, you have to _listen_ to me.”

Mick looks Len dead in the eye, hands clenching.

“I don’t have to do anything. You’re not real.”

Mick strides off, following the others. Len is clearly upset by this, but it manifests as anger. As Mick walks, Len follows, calling after him.

“Mick! Mick! _Mick!_ Listen to me! You’re making a mistake!”

Mick ends up with the others, and they wait for Gideon to open up the other ship’s door. It starts to do so just as Mick approaches. Len darts in front of Mick, but stops just short of the doorway to the other ship.

“Mick, _stop!”_

Mick steps to the side and bypasses Len, following the others into the dark of the other ship. When the door shuts behind Mick and the rest of the team as they board the other ship, Len has disappeared.

 

 **Scene:** Everyone is filing into the room in the other ship where the Waverider’s airlock led them to. Sara is at the head, right next to the open doorway leading to the rest of the ship. Everything looks old and broken; some panels in the walls are missing, even some pieces of the floor, which is strewn with rubbish. The lights are pale and yellow-green, and barely light up the surrounding area. Wiring, torn, frayed and cut, has been pulled out in places. Some of the lights are smashed. It makes a sorry picture, and everyone looking at it isn’t happy to be there. Sara starts to speak.

“All right, guys – stay together. We don’t know what might be waiting for us; could be an enemy, could be some faulty wiring and we get electrocuted. We keep our eyes and ears open and head for the main deck.”

“And, how will we know where that is?” asks Stein.

“Layout should be roughly the same,” Mick answers. “The Time Masters weren’t exactly imaginative when it came to structural design.”

“Air seems okay, as well,” adds Ray. “I brought some equipment – Jax, maybe we can try and take a look at that mainframe together?”

Jax nods. “Sure thing. And Mick, too?”

Mick just shrugs. Sara is about to say something, but then there’s an almighty clang and the lights go out. Before anyone can even shout with surprise, the lights come back on again.

“What was –” starts Ray, but Jax interrupts.

“Crap!” Jax points his finger, behind Mick, who spins around. As the team gather around, they realise what’s gone wrong – the airlock door, their only safe way out, has been abruptly shut. Mick goes to the control panel, but it’s clearly dead and he slams his palm against it.

“We’re shut in,” he says. “Like rats.”

“Rats are pretty smart,” says Amaya. “We’ll be fine. What about Gideon?”

Sara goes to her comm piece. “Gideon? Gideon – come in.” She winces sharply and pulls the comm out. The others wince as well since they could hear the piercing shriek of static coming from her piece. “Comms aren’t working, I can’t reach Gideon,”

Abruptly everyone winces and pulls out their earpieces when the exact same thing happens to them.

“ _Damn._ That’s weird,” says Jax.

“I’m guessing that _really_ shouldn’t be happening,” says Amaya.

Stein pales. “Wait – wait a minute. Are you telling me that we’re stuck on a hazardous ship in the middle of the time stream, with no way off and no way to contact backup?”

Mick grunts. “Big deal, all we need to do is get to the control room. We can contact Gideon from there. Easy.”

“Mick’s right,” says Sara. “The plan hasn’t changed – we get in, and we get out. We just need to be especially careful that we don’t get separated, that’s all.”

“Should be easy enough,” pipes up Ray. “So long as the ship follows the same general outline as the Waverider. Even if we do get lost, we just need to keep walking until we find our way.”

“Exactly,” says Sara. “Chin up, Professor. We’ll be out of here in no time.”

Stein does not look convinced, but as they file out Jax pats his arm firmly and he begrudgingly follows. Mick ends up the last, and before he goes he casts one long, suspicious look at the sealed-shut airlock door...

 

 **Scene:** We see the team walk cautiously in single file down the hallway; Sara leading point, with Amaya, Stein, Jax, and Ray following, and Mick taking up rear. The lights are flickering on and off with longer and longer intervals of darkness. The hallway is just as torn up as the airlock room had been; panels missing, exposed wires, dirty floors, broken lights. It’s a hazard zone, and everyone looks about themselves warily. Stein frowns down at it. “This is incredibly unsafe. Look at all this debris -!”

“Just keep moving,” says Sara.

There’s a large clang that sends everyone on high alert. Sara gives a general glare at the group, although she’s mainly looking at Ray. She hisses at Ray, who whispers back.

“Who did that?!” snaps Sara.

“Why are you looking at me?” asks Ray, offended.

Amaya interrupts, at normal volume. “Why are you whispering? This place is clearly deserted.”

There’s a skittering sound. Stein, who had been close by the wall, immediately lurches away. “Oh dear sweet stars in heaven,” he whimpers.

Sara waves her hand. “You can merge to become an unstoppable angel of fire, Professor, please calm down.”

“Calm!” exclaims Stein. “You want me to be _calm –!”_

Sara interrupts. “We’re not going anywhere by arguing. One thing’s for sure – I think we all know this isn’t an accident.”

There’s another clang, and everyone’s heads darts up.

“So it _is_ an ambush,” says Amaya.

“The crew must still be alive,” says Sara. “They must have lured us in –”

“Why?!” exclaims Stein.

“Spare parts from our ship, maybe?” says Jax. “Could be Time Pirates, again.”

Sara glances at Mick, who actually catches her eye for a moment. He speaks before she has a chance. “Enough chit chat. Are we going or not?”

Sara answers. “We need to get to the control deck, one way or the other. Everybody, let’s go.”

They begin to walk, on high alert, each with varying degrees of nervousness. Sara has her blades out, Amaya is on standby with her amulet, Stein is clutching his sweater, Jax has his fists ready, Ray is swallowing thickly and grasping a pistol in one hand, and Mick’s eyes are narrowed, darting everywhere. The lights are flickering on and off. Noises begin to start, softly at first, then louder, closer, like a broken train on broken tracks. Everyone gets distracted looking around, trying to pinpoint what direction these noises are coming from. The lights then go off completely, and everyone cries out. Abruptly, the lights come on, so bright as to be blinding. They’re all stumbling forward, eyes screwed shut or an arm thrown over their eyes to protect them. The light dims gradually until it reaches emergency levels, and one by one they open their eyes…and horror dawns.

They’re each completely alone. There’s no sign of their other teammates at all.

The lights are still flickering.

We see snapshots of each of the team, looking around themselves worriedly, calling out for the others. Amaya looks ready to fight, as does Sara – Stein looks terrified – Jax is very concerned, almost angry – Mick looks confused and suspicious – Ray is looking steadily and steadily more unnerved –

And then we see, travelling through empty halls –

The movement of a shadow…

 

 **Scene:** We briefly see the outside of the ship, with the Waverider still attached. It hasn’t moved an inch. The timestream is still flickering around the edges of it. Inside the ship is dark – ominous noises clink and drip and groan. We see an empty hallway – until Stein’s head pokes slowly around the corner. A pipe soon follows, clutched tightly in his hands, once he’s determined the hallway is empty. He’s whispering as he goes, walking carefully.

“…Jefferson?”

He jumps at nothing and swings around, waving his pipe frantically. Nothing’s there. The lights are still flickering and the ends of the corridor have been swallowed by darkness. Then the intercom hisses, the sound rising and falling until it almost sounds like someone breathing into a microphone. He looks ready to cry, and slowly turns around to continue down his path. Then, banging reverberates through the air and he freezes. But slowly he realises there’s a voice within the banging, and it’s one he recognises – it’s Sara’s voice. He begins to run. Out of nowhere, Amaya rushes in, snarling, and they both topple to the ground. Amaya pulls back, startled. “Stein??”

Stein just groans, and Amaya helps him up. “I thought you were – I, I heard – never mind. We were walking, and then something _grabbed_ me – what _happened?_ ”

Stein bends to retrieve his pipe, shaking his head. “I don’t know – but I can’t contact anyone, I’ve _tried – ”_

“Me neither. Gideon still won’t pick up. Have you seen anyone else?”

“No – just things that keep moving just outside of my range of vision. And an unfortunate amount of terrifying noises…”

The banging increases, as does Sara’s unintelligible yelling. Stein and Amaya catch eyes and nod, running towards her.

 

 **Scene:** We see a dark room, with indistinct shapes in it, the emergency lighting only casting a faint glow about the place. Sara is leaning with her back against the doorway, one hand holding her staff. She doesn’t look scared, but she does seem extremely alert and tense. The room itself, the parts that we can see close to her, is strewn with the same kind of disrepair. She’s periodically banging the door with her free hand and she glances at the electronic panel that should have opened the door easily – except it’s clearly broken, the casing smashed. She throws it a disgusted frown, and redoubles her efforts on the door.

“Hey! Is anyone there?! I could really use a hand right about now!”

Then, slightly muffled on the other side of the door, are voices, and Sara immediately perks up.

“Sara?!”

“Miss Lance, are you in there?!”

Sara bangs on the door again. “Guys! I’m here! I can’t get the door open!”

We now see the other side of the door, where Amaya and Stein are just arriving. Amaya puts her hands to the door, searching for any opening, while Stein just hovers, flustered.

“So you were just banging on it?” says Amaya as she searches. Sara’s voice comes through the other side of the door.

“Well, I don’t exactly have super strength!”

Amaya frowns at the door. “Just – hold on!”

She examines the door again, tapping her amulet after a moment’s assessment. The gorilla spirit envelopes her, and she lunges at the seam of the door, trying to pick it apart. It’s a struggle – the door doesn’t yield at first, but after putting her back into it, the door finally opens up a gap large enough that Sara’s face can be seen. “Keep going, Amaya!” she says.

Amaya just grunts and keeps struggling. Abruptly Stein yelps and Amaya jumps, losing her grip on the door. It bangs shut and Amaya rounds on Stein. Inside the room, Sara slams her hands against the door, frustrated.

“What the hell was that for?” Amaya snaps at Stein.

But Stein doesn’t respond. He just clutches his pipe to his chest and looks at the door, mouth slightly open, face terrified. Amaya just frowns, confused. “…Stein…?”

The pipe twists in Stein’s hands. “I…I’m too old for this…I’m too _old_ for this…”

Amaya glances back at the door. “Stein, what are you talking about?”

“Sara – Sara, please, be careful –”

Sara, through the other side of the door, replies. “What? Of what?”

Inside the room we see Sara, hands still against the door, looking confused. Behind her, the room is swathed in darkness and clutter, with indistinct shapes towards the farthest edge of the room. Wires are hanging from the ceiling. Suddenly we see a little faint glow, as though some of the emergency lighting is flickering from the wires, dripping like water.

Stein (from the other side of the door) calls out. “Sara!”

“What?!” she yells back, frustrated.

“Behind you -!”

Sara turns around immediately, ready to fight –

Directly behind her is a misty figure, very faint, very ethereal, glowing blue in the centre and yellow-green on the edges. Sara’s eyes widen, her mouth opens to yell –

In a hoarse, echoing voice, it speaks, but we can’t make out the words – all that comes out is a long, drawn out sound, like a knife scraping against rusted metal –

From the other side of the door, Amaya and Stein are yelling Sara’s name…

 

 **Scene:** We see Ray’s back now, and he flips his head around, listening hard as though he’s just heard something. His eyes are wide but his mouth is determined, and his pistol is ready. All around him there’s creaking and groaning, with intermittent bursts of static and hoarse noises from the intercom. He swallows. “Ohhh, this is the opposite of fine.”

He catches sight of the intercom and moves towards it, holstering his gun and picking up a piece of metal to try and pry the casing off. He then notices a cracked seam along the edge and follows it down and along until he reaches a panel in the wall. It measures the length of the floor to the ceiling, and the casing is already bent as though someone’s tried to pull it off, but wasn’t successful. He grits his teeth.

“All right. I’m no Jax, but I _am_ a scientist. I can at least rewire the intercom…right? Yes. Right.”

Ray sets his jaw, holsters his pistol in the back of his pants, and sets about prying the panel off the wall. It doesn’t come off easy, and he grimaces as he redoubles his efforts. The panel finally peels off abruptly and he goes flying backwards, pulling a lot of debris with him. He splutters for a few moments, coughing a bit and struggling with the heavy panel that’s fallen on him, along with all the accompanying wires –

He comes face to face with the open-mouthed, withered head of an aged corpse that had been tangled in with the wires – and he _screams._

 

 **Scene:** We see Jax fiddling with the electrics behind a panel, back on the ground and his head and arms buried in an opening in the wall he’d clearly made himself, if the panel piece beside him is any indication. There’s a small electric zap and Jax yelps, shoving himself out of the hole, thoroughly disgruntled.

“Can’t get the intercom, can’t get lights – man, this place is a mess.” He kicks a piece of debris in disgust. “Literally.”

We suddenly hear Ray’s screaming and Jax’s head darts up. “Ray?!” He scrambles to his feet and runs down the hall, searching, trying to find where the noise is coming from. “Ray! Where are you, man!”

From somewhere, Ray is yelling. “Help! Ohhh help! Ahhh!”

Jax takes off with purpose, rounding a corner where Ray is still struggling with the panel, wiring, and corpses. “Ray!”

“Jax!! Oh my god!! I am SO HAPPY to see you!!!” cries Ray, nearly literally. Jax rushes over to help him, grasping the mess of wires and corpse without hesitation, although his face does wrinkle with disgust. Ray manages to push the panel off, and Jax helps him to his feet. Once they’re both standing, Ray grasps Jax’s arm, eyes still wide with panic.

“Jax. I’m coming in for a hug.”

“Uh –”

Ray envelopes him in a desperate hug. Jax just pats Ray’s back and looks bemused, but not annoyed.

“You really needed one, huh?” says Jax.

Ray releases him, sucking in a deep breath of air as he does so. He’s still clutching Jax’s arms.

“Oh man,” says Ray. “That was awful. What the heck happened to everyone??”

“Same thing that happened to us, I’m guessing,” replies Jax.

They look down at the corpse, which is completely dried up. The uniform it’s wearing is relatively unscathed, aside from a few tiny tears and burn holes. Jax frowns at it.

“Guess the crew never made it off the ship,” he says. Ray grimaces.

“Looks like. Any chance whoever did this is also either dead or not here anymore?”

Jax just shakes his head, snorting. “Knowing our luck? As if. Wait a minute…hey, you recognise those wires?”

Ray frowns down at them. “Wait – are those – those should lead directly to the control deck, from back in the engine room! What were they trying to do in there?”

“Cut off power?” says Jax. “Doesn’t make sense to try it from here though; why not just go straight to the engine room? Or use one of the actual maintenance points? And why try and shut off the power?”

“Hold on – look at those.” Ray points to some dark marks along the corpse’s clothing and neck. Jax winces at the sight.

“Scorch marks? Oh, man, they weren’t trying to do anything with the power – somebody closed them in and let the ship’s electrics do the rest of the work!”

Ray swallows thickly. “So…either one or more of the crew is a killer, or…”

“Somebody got onto the ship and started killing them,” Jax concludes.

“And we have no idea if they’re still on the ship,” Ray adds.

Jax shakes his head. “My guess is, _something_ sure as hell is on this ship. The way the power’s diffused – that’s not something that can happen by accident. The ship was cloaked, but it was sending out a distress signal.”

Ray nods in agreement. “Whoever set this up is seriously screwy. We need to find the others – let’s head to the control deck –”

Jax interrupts. “No. No, man – we should head to Engineering. Wiring casings point that-a-way, let’s go.”

“What – but –”

“Think about it. Gideon said to head for the main deck so she can access controls. Engineering might not have any of the delicate stuff, but we have control to pretty much everything else down there – lights, heat, airlock backups –”

“The doors!” exclaims Ray.

Jax nods. “Exactly.”

“Okay. Yeah – okay! What about…” Ray glances down at the corpse, still tangled in the wires. Jax claps Ray on the shoulder and pulls Ray up.

“Nothing we can do for them. C’mon – I’ve been getting nothing but panic from Grey this whole time. The faster we get down to engineering, the faster we get the upper hand in this mess.”

Ray nods, still pale, but now resolute. “Right.”

They run down the hall – behind them, the corpse lies where they left it, covered in wires, face turned slightly to the side as though watching them leave, hand slightly outstretched as though trying to call them back…

 

 **Scene:** We see a random hallway, with detritus littering the floor. A boot comes down on a piece of debris and we see Mick, gun ready to fire, eyes darting everywhere. He’s walking slowly down the hallway, checking each open doorway for potential targets. It’s deathly silent – until pure noise shrieks in the air. Mick jumps and swings around, looking for something to shoot, but there’s nothing. Then the voices start – male or female or even human, it’s impossible to tell. They go in and out of focus like a radio searching for a frequency, and bangs, crashes and scraping noises begin as well. Mick keeps walking, his eyes peeled – and then he hears –

_\- ick! Get out! Get out!_

He freezes, then looks around. Intercoms are dispersed along the walls and doorways, and he goes to one of them, tapping it lightly.

_No – no – stop – st –_

He begins to walk faster down the hall, turning corners as the voices scream and beg.

_Plea – top – ick – ick – top – out, get –_

He shakes his head. “No…” he says, under his breath, and he picks up the pace, the noises howling now. He reaches a door; the device for opening it is clearly broken, so he palms the surface, looking for cracks.

_No – no! Stop – get out, get ou – ick!_

Mick grabs a piece of debris and wedges it into a gap in the centre of the door, forcing it open. The noise keeps shrieking until he fully pries open the doors – then it goes dead. Mick walks carefully into the room, circling the edge, passing by a library area and central console very similar to the make on the Waverider. There’s a noticeable lack of debris and ruin in this room; in fact, it’s nearly pristine. Only a fine layer of dust coats the area, which Mick discovers when he swipes his finger across the console. He steps back abruptly when it lights up, green symbols flitting across both the flat surface and a holographic screen that pops up. A soft hum follows and Mick cautiously approaches again, tentatively poking the console, trying to activate the intercom.

“Hey – anybody out there?” he says. Nothing happens, and he scowls, jabbing at the console. “C’mon, you stupid hunk of junk – work. Power on. Activate. _Talk.”_

He jumps back as a hologram, blue-white and blurry, suddenly starts to play – full sized humans appear, mid-sentence –

“ – get _out!”_ says a woman, pleading with a stern-faced man. “Eurydice can barely move. Dave, _please –”_

“I will _not_ tolerate insubordination!” snaps the man, hands behind his back. He’s wearing a long coat, with a uniform underneath. The other people – four of them – are wearing a similar uniform.

“This isn’t insubordination!” says a second man. “For goodness sake, Dave –”

“That’s Captain, to you,” says the first man, frowning sharply. Mick gets a little close to him; we see the man looks neat on the surface, but is actually a little unkempt; stubble is growing, and the hair hasn’t been washed. The other people, who are clearly his crew, look dismayed.

“Is that what we’ve come to?” snaps another woman. The first woman reaches out to her in alarm, aborting the movement at the last moment. “I don’t know who you are anymore.”

“I am your _Captain!”_ snarls the first man. “We were entrusted with a sacred task, and we _will_ fulfil our duty –!”

“No-one’s saying that we won’t!” says a third woman. “But Dave, the engines –”

“It’s not just the engines!” blurts out the second woman. “It’s what we’re _looking for!_ It’s going to get us killed!”

“This can’t have been what the Time Master Authority meant,” insists the second man. “I daresay there aren’t enough Time Masters that we can be used as cannon fodder for a doomed mission.”

“Dave, you’re symptomatic,” says the second woman, and she speaks like she’s begging. “Eurydice and I have _studied_ overexposure – it’s why you engaged us in the first place! You swore –”

“I swore an oath to the Authority!” roars the Captain, and the crew flinch away. “We all did, when they pulled us from whatever gutter we were born into! Are you loyal or not?!”

The crew look stricken – then the image glitches, clearly frozen. Mick narrows his eyes at the furious frozen figure of the Captain.

“Asshole,” he growls. “You gotta _listen_ to your crew.”

He steps back as the hologram abruptly cuts out, ending up close to the seats. He looks around a little – then sees something, and frowns, moving closer to the Captain’s chair. He approaches it slowly, and, as he gets closer, a figure can be seen resting in the chair, head tilted to the side. Slowly Mick approaches, finally reaching the chair – his eyes widen –

In the chair sits a mummified corpse, mouth open, eyes gaping –

It’s dressed in the same long coat as the Captain in the hologram…

 

 **Scene:** Back in the hallway, outside the room Sara is trapped in, we see Amaya and Stein still banging on the door, calling out for her. Amaya shoves Stein away and taps her amulet, calling up the Rhino spirit. She backs up to take a running start and Stein jumps out of the way.

“Sara, get out of the way – I’m breaking down the door!” she yells, and runs, bashing right into the door. It crumples, but doesn’t come off entirely. From the other side of the room, Sara shrieks. “Amaya!!”

Amaya hits her amulet, calling up the gorilla spirit, which she uses to rip the door off in one herculean effort. The door itself she punts to the side and she and Stein quickly enter, looking around for Sara. Sara is to the left, on the ground, back pressed against the wall and eyes wide, chest heaving. She looks terrified. They rush over to her.

“Sara!” says Amaya, putting her hands on the other woman’s shoulders.

“Sara!” says Stein, hovering. “What happened?!”

Sara shakes herself, letting Amaya help her stand. “It – it – _spoke.”_

Stein blanches. “Good lord. What did it say?”

Sara glances over the room again, concern and confusion crossing her face. “It said…‘please’. It said ‘please’.”

Amaya frowns. “Please? Please what?”

Sara shakes her head. “I don’t know – but I –”

They all jump as a static noise fills the air and then dies down again.

Stein clutches his heart. “What was –?”

Amaya darts over to the door frame. “The intercom screen. I saw it light up, just there.”

“But that shouldn’t be working…” Stein cautiously examines it from over Amaya’s shoulder. Sara presses the pad next to the door, even though the casing is half-coming off.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me? Jax? Ray? Mick?” The intercom buzzes with static for a moment, high pitched and then low, like an adjusting radio frequency. She frowns and tries again. “Hello! Is anyone there?”

The intercom buzzes, and then shrieks with a mix of noises – people yelling, crashing sounds, screeches. There’s no telling how many people there are within the noise, or even if they’re men or women. Amaya frowns. “Gibberish. What _is_ this place?”

The room is long, with two rows of escape pods on either side. There are eight escape pods. Sara begins to carefully walk into it. “Looks like the emergency escape area. Those are escape pods. C’mon, we should check it out.”

Stein grimaces. “Maybe we should try to find the others…”

Sara rolls her eyes. “C’mon, Professor. Relax.”

“Relax?! Did you not _see_ –”

Sara slaps him on the shoulder and moves past him, throwing him a grin. “I ain’t afraid of no ghosts,” she says as she goes.

The three advance cautiously in the room, Stein far more reluctantly than the others, once he’s given Sara a suitably withering glare. There are eight escape pods in varying states of disrepair. Some of the glass screens are broken. Amaya’s foot crunches on some of the glass as she investigates.

“The glass is on the outside…” she says. “Whoever was inside broke _out.”_

Stein moves forward, again observing from over Amaya’s shoulder. “Why on earth would anyone break _out_ of an escape pod?”

“Maybe there was something in there with them,” Sara suggests, and Stein pales even further.

“ …why would you say that.”

“It makes sense,” agrees Amaya, and he looks at her as though he’s been betrayed.

“ …why would you say _that?”_

Amaya and Sara give him a Look and continue examining the room. Sara just shakes her head. “None of these escape pods are functioning. They’re all broken,” she says. Stein finally breaks away from the group, slowly examining things on his own.

“Not all of them,” he says. “Here, this one, down at the end. Perhaps – oh. Oh dear.”

Amaya immediately moves forward, with Sara close behind. “What? What is it?”

Stein merely points a shaking finger at the pod as Amaya and Sara approach. There is a corpse in one of the escape pods, mummified and dressed in a uniform. The head is tilted to the side, and one clenched hand is still pressed against the glass of the pod. There are crusted brown smears across the glass, made out in frantic patterns - it’s clearly the remains of blood, left by someone desperately pummelling the glass until their skin tore. If the remainder of a messy bun on the top of the corpse’s head is any indication, it was a woman.

“Oh my god…” says Amaya.

“Her hand,” says Sara. “She was trying to get out. But unlike the others –”

“She didn’t make it,” finishes Amaya.

The three of them jump as a monitor screeches into life, drawing their attention away from the broken escape pods and the corpse. They slowly walk over as the dim grey-white light flickers along with the emergency lighting. Stein keeps worriedly looking around at the debris, but Sara and Amaya stay focused on the screen. The image is barely there, extremely blurry, but it definitely shows a dark-haired woman with short hair, and the woman’s expression can be made out – frightened. Her voice is scratchy and tinny; the sound system is clearly malfunctioning. She’s speaking with a standardised English accent, hushed.

“- _listen!_ I don’t know what to do. Dave has gone quite mad. He sees conspiracies everywhere. Zebrina is still confined in the brig, Octavius is over-medicating, and dear Eurydice – she isn’t speaking anymore. She’s terrified, constantly – I’ve had to sedate her. The only one who seems to have a clear head is Grace –

The video halts, the glitches, and skips forward. The next section shows her closer to the screen, speaking more hushed, voice trembling.

“I’m frightened. I’m so very, very frightened. I think there’s something on the ship. It goes deeper than Time Displacement Syndrome – the symptoms don’t make sense. I’m so utterly frightened that we’ve somehow found whatever it was the Authority was trying to find…”

The three are watching the woman speak and don’t notice the lights flickering around the area of the escape pods. These lights are bright white, but are difficult to notice amidst the flashing emergency lights and the light from the monitor. We see the corpse in the escape pod, the hand pressing against the glass as the monitor lights start to flash –

“…or perhaps _it’s_ found _us…”_

 

 **Scene:** Back in the control room, Mick is still staring at the dead body – he’s not alarmed, but the corpse is horrible to look at. He sees that one of the Captain’s hands is buried in his coat, and narrows his eyes, reaching forward and carefully pulling the coat away to reveal a hand clutching a battered leather journal. Mick just snorts and pulls the book out.

“Handwritten, huh?” Mick eyes the body, one hand opening up the book. “Didn’t want anybody to hack your secrets. You must’ve been fun.”

The light is too bad to see, so he brings it closer to the central dashboard, where there’s a little more light. As he goes he pulls the Captain’s chair around to face him and the rest of the room, talking to the corpse as he reads.

“Let’s see…” says Mick, flipping through. “A diary. Wuss. _I’ve been…_ uh – _betrayed_ ….I thought my handwriting was bad. _Traitors, all…_ yadda yadda… _the mission has gone terribly wrong…_ meh. _My crew are seeking to overthrow me. Grace is the only one I can trust_ – well, that’s helpful. Coulda used some command codes or something, asshat. And who’s Grace?

“Don’t you remember?”

He spins around, heatgun firing up, and sees the Captain in his chair – except now there’s a glowing blue form, green around the edges and nearly transparent. It looks to be a woman with long flowing hair and a long dress, kneeling on the floor and laying her head in the lap of the Captain, hands neatly perched beneath her chin. She’s watching Mick, and doesn’t appear to be afraid.

 _“I’m_ Grace,” she says, and her British accent has an echoing quality to it, as though the words are being spoken from the other side of a tunnel. Mick’s fingers clench down on the book, and the spectre smiles…

 

 **Scene:** Jax and Ray have just found the engineering room – the door is wide open and Jax heads straight to an access panel.

“C’mon,” he says. “Help me take this off. Faster we can rewire the system, the better chance we have to –”

While Jax has been speaking, Ray is helping him pull off the panel. They manage to do so, but Jax abruptly stops speaking, as behind the panel is another corpse, mummified and strangled with wires. Ray gasps and drops the panel. They look at each other worriedly – the body is right where they need to access.

“Do we – do we touch it?” says Ray.

“This is the second body we’ve come across,” says Jax, shaking his head. “Come on, might as well try. We need this outlet if we’re gonna have a shot at restoring power.”

They carefully dislodge the corpse from its hiding place, the wires slipping off without too much difficulty. As they place the body down, a little tablet falls out of the pocket and clatters onto the floor. They blink, and Ray picks it up.

“Hey, is this what I think it is?” he says, trying to power it on. Amazingly it still has juice, but it asks for a password and he frowns. Jax takes it from him, examining it.

“Man, I really hope it’s a log book,” he says. “The Waverider’s system is a helluva lot less complicated than this ship.”

“Not much we can do about a password, though,” says Ray.

“We can if it’s biometrics,” replies Jax and glances down at the corpse, eyebrows rising. Ray grimaces.

“Do you think that’ll still work?”

“It’s probably based off’a DNA instead of fingerprints, so…hopefully.”

They press the thumb of the corpse against the screen, and, incredibly, it unlocks. Excited, they grin at one another, and begin to scroll across the screen. Ray points.

“Hold up – that looks like the last recording made,” he says, and he taps the screen. A video begins to play. There’s a woman on screen, her hair done up tightly in a plait. She never looks directly at the screen, always over her shoulder as though she’s watching for something. She’s speaking in a hushed voice.

“It’s all I can do to keep this record private,” she’s saying. “The Captain insists on screening all logs. Then he _edits_ them. Edits! We’re meant to be researchers –”

The video glitches, then skips.

“-gone completely mad,” she’s now saying, still watching over her shoulder. “Jenny’s gone. She’s _gone_ , we don’t know where. I’m the engineer, I know every inch of this place and we can’t _find_ her. The Captain doesn’t seem worried, which makes me think he _knows_ something –”

It skips again. This time she’s looking directly at the screen. Her plait has come undone, and there are bags under her eyes. She looks like she’s been crying.

“Zebrina is gone,” she’s saying. “I know she’s dead. I know now they’re both dead and it’s only a matter of time before that madman and his bitch gets us all. I’ve sent Octavius to the secondary engineering room – our only hope is that Carroll can keep the Captain distracted enough that we can reboot the system and save our sorry hides. My hand is already on my lever. This is it. We will live or die by my plan. My name is Augusta, and I’ve never needed any other name. May this log stand as record of the hideous injustice being done against us. I –”

She abruptly disappears and the screen clatters to the ground. The sound is still on. There’s a slight rustling noise, followed by desperate choking.

“N-no –” comes Augusta’s voice, strained. “S-stop…s-stop…”

The screen goes blank. Jax and Ray stare at each other, wide-eyed.

“She was murdered,” says Ray quietly.

“And I have a feeling that the same thing’s gonna happen to us, unless we can figure out how to get off this ship,” says Jax, and both of them look down at the body of the former engineer, twisted and tangled in wires, one hand clutched against her neck…

 

 **Scene:** Back in the control deck, Mick and the ghost are watching each other. He still has the heat gun ready and trained on her.

“What are you?” he says, and she smiles.

“Memories, mostly,” she replies, looking up at her Captain. “You don’t remember. You said I would have to teach you again. Time is funny like that.”

“What are you talking about?”

She nods at him, and Mick looks down to the book in his hands.

“It’s all in there,” she says. “You wanted your thoughts to be private. It hurt me, but I understood. You showed me.”

As she’s speaking, Mick moves back slowly, until he’s back at the console. He puts the book down on the surface. “You’re the reason this crappy ship got wrecked?” he says, and she lifts her head abruptly, hurt.

“No!” she said. “I – I – I – t-t-tried t-t-t-to w-w-warn –”

Her form flickers. In a split second she disappears, then reappears. Her previous distress is gone, and a smile is fixed on her face.

“The Captain is right in all things,” she says. “He is a Time Master. The training they receive is flawless.”

It sounds like she’s reciting something, and understanding – and dread – dawn across Mick’s face.

“Grace,” he says. “Another damn G name. You’re this ship’s A.I., aren’t you?”

Grace beams. “You’re remembering, Dave! Well done!”

Mick just shakes his head, a thread of horror running across his face. “A.I.s aren’t supposed to tell their Captains what they wanna hear,” he says. “That’s how most Time Masters managed to stay alive so long.”

“I was wrong,” says Grace. “If I had listened earlier, none of this would have happened.”

“A.I.s are never wrong,” says Mick. “That’s why they’re so goddamn annoying.”

He begins to surreptitiously work on the console, green symbols flitting around. Grace watches him.

“You’re my Captain, Dave,” she says.

“I sure as hell don’t look anything like that clown,” says Mick. Grace smiles.

“It’s not about the outside, it’s about the inside,” she says.

“Same thing,” he says, and Grace shakes her head.

“Only for the moment,” she says. “I’ve had enough time to scan now, and once I bring everyone into the medbay, I’ll start the reconditioning process. I’ve stored everything – brain scans, memories – just like you asked. You’ve even brought the right number of people with you, and they’re all healthy! It’s going to be wonderful to have everyone back together!”

Mick, keeping one eye on her, continues to work on the console.

“Uh huh,” he says. “Hate to break it to ya, Ghostie, but I’m already signed up to a crew filled with idiots. I ain’t interested in _yours.”_

There’s a screeching noise and Grace looks up in alarm. Mick just smiles, sharp as a knife, and swipes the console. A voice, slightly scratchy, comes through the comms. It’s Ray.

“Hello?”

“Haircut!” barks Mick. “It’s the A.I. on the ship – her code’s been messed with. We need a way of shutting her out of the system – and _fast.”_

“Got it! Working on it now!” says Jax.

 

 **Scene:** We see Jax and Ray in the engineering room, wrists deep the wires inside the panel they found the engineer in. Jax is shaking his head. “Damn – the onboard A.I.? No wonder we couldn’t get things working – she’s blocking access!”

Mick’s voice comes through the intercom. “There’s a way to shut it off manually, right?”

“Yeah!” says Jax “There’s a lever here that’ll reset the whole system – but it needs to be turned at the same time as a secondary switch, and I don’t know where that is!”

“Yes! Yes we do!” says Ray, dashing back to the log book they found earlier. “Remember – the engineer, Augusta, she said she sent an Octavius down to the second engineering room! They must have come to the same conclusion as us!”

“Yeah, but we still don’t know where that is,” says Jax. Ray shakes his head sharply.

“Yes, we do – Mick!”

“Yeah?”

“Can you pull up schematics?”

Back in the control deck, Mick is eyeing up Grace, who only raises an eyebrow.

“Hold on –” says Mick, and starts tapping. The screen comes up no problem, although it’s glitching badly. He narrows his eyes at Grace, suspicious – but Grace is also narrowing her eyes at the display, frowning when it stays solid and little lights pop up, identifying where everyone is.

“Hey, Blondie!” he says into the intercom. “You still alive?”

“Yeah, Mick!” comes Sara’s voice through the intercoms. “I’ve got Amaya and Stein here too – where’s that lever?”

“All right, I see you – keep heading down that hall, take a right, and then a left.”

 

 **Scene:** In this hallway, coming out of the escape pod room, Sara, Amaya and Stein nod seriously, already moving.

“Got it,” says Sara. “Okay guys, we’ll get to the second lever – just be ready!”

Ray’s voice comes through the intercoms. “Aye, aye, Captain!”

Stein, pulling up the rear in his running group, starts to look worried again. “Wait, wait wait! Won’t turning off the power also turn off the life support? We’ll suffocate again!”

Jax replies through the intercoms. “Not if we time it right – and not if Mick can keep the A.I. occupied. Just go!”

They all nod and pick up the pace.

 

 **Scene:** Back in the control room, Grace doesn’t seem fazed. “It won’t work,” she says, and she takes a few steps back to fold down to the ground next to the Captain. “They tried to escape before.” She rests her head on the Captain’s lap. “And you’ve seen how that works out.”

Mick still keeps her in the corner of his eye. “Uh-huh.”

“I’m telling you, it’s not going to work,” insists Grace, standing again and moving closer. “Even with your little friend working the system.”

Mick freezes. “Gideon.”

Grace blinks. “Another A.I.?” she says, faintly. “Dave…you…replaced me?”

“…Ah, _crap.”_

“You – you can’t just replace me! We were _everything_ to each other!”

“Listen, Ghostie, _I’m not Dave.”_

Grace glows brighter, anger overcoming her. She raises her arms out, and scuffling noises fill the air – banging and screeching, metal on metal. Mick looks around worriedly, trying to predict where the trouble is about to come from.

“Hey, jerks!” he says, head turning, eyes darting, as the noise intensifies. “If you can hear me – get ready! Ghostie just found out I’ve been two-timing her.”

Dozens of wires break through panels – floor, wall, ceiling – and gather around Grace. She looks like a ghostly Medusa, a halo of syringes and shockers surrounding her. Her face hardens, and Mick blanches.

“Ah… _crap.”_

 

 **Scene:** Back in the first engineering room, Ray and Jax look up from their work, hearing the same noises Mick had. Wires begin to seep out of the vents, and up through cracks in the floor. Wide-eyed, Ray and Jax look and each other and then try to work even faster.

 

 **Scene:** Back in their hallway, Sara, Amaya and Stein are trying to get to the second emergency power override, the door just a few steps away – but now they’re fighting wires that are trying to choke them and drag them deeper into the ship. Electronic shocks and blunt instruments are being wielded against the team, and they’re hard-pressed to defend themselves.

 

 **Scene:** Back in the control deck, Mick has his hands running across the dashboard, holograms popping up and disappearing in quick succession. “Everybody sure as hell better be getting into place!” he snaps.

“You’ll regret this,” says Grace, mouth snarling, wires writhing. “I wanted to do this painlessly. It was so traumatic for you all the first time.”

“The first time?” Ray’s voice comes through the intercom. “Wait – what did you do?”

Mick’s eyes widen – his head flips to Grace, who’s looking coldly down at him –

“You don’t remember this.” She makes a sharp movement with her hand. “But once I’m done – you’ll remember _everything.”_

There’s a whirring noise – everyone, wherever they are, looks around cautiously – and then they start to choke, grasping their throats and stumbling.

In the first engineering room, Ray and Jax hit the wall, struggling, clutching their throats. “The – air controls -!” gasps Jax. “Hu –rry – M – Mi –”

Back in their area, Sara, Amaya, and Stein, so close to the doors, struggle to make it the last few steps. Amaya hits her totem to call up the elephant spirit, and manages to bash the door open – but it’s this last effort that takes it out of her. She collapses, and Sara catches her, both of them falling down – Stein struggles behind them and ends up on his knees, hands clawing at his throat –

The doors now open, the lever in their sights…they finally collapse entirely, twitching, choking for breath, and passing out…

 

 **Scene:** Back in the control room, Grace is watching impassively as Mick struggles to keep going, but eventually staggers to the ground, clutching the table. He keeps his eyes on her, grimacing.

“S – stop –” he says. Pain slips into Grace’s face, and the wires swing slowly, like a breeze is pulling them to and fro.

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that,” she says, and she moves slowly to where Mick has now collapsed, just barely propped up against the side of the console. His face is red and strained, and he can only watch as Grace kneels close by him, taking his head into her arms and resting her cheek against his forehead.

“Oh, Dave…” she said. “You were right. You were right. All I had to do was be patient…”

The intercom screeches and she looks up, frowning. Familiar battered noises seep out – they’re the same noises that followed Mick earlier, banging, yelling, scratching, dozens of voices together. She frowns and stands, leaving behind a struggling Mick, who eventually falls back and passes out. She circles the console slowly, her frown deepening with confusion. The noises rise and fall, electronic – and then Grace darts forward, wide-eyed and alarmed. On the console, the ship’s green symbols, constantly running, constantly changing, are being eaten away by new silver symbols.

“No -!” Grace cries, thrusting her hands and arms, elbow deep, into the interface. “Stop – stop – STOP!”

Silver crawls up her arm and she screams, darting away. She looks up, clutching her arms to her chest, as an audible hum goes off – there’s a rush of air, and her eyes widen again. “The controls – the air – no, stop!”

The noise of an out-of-sync microphone screeches through the air – Grace doesn’t know where to look, or what to do. She turns and turns as lights flicker and machinery begins to hum, clearly not in control of anything. She ends up on her knees next to Mick, her head cradled in her hands.

“Please –” she begs. “I had them first! I had them _first.”_

The intercom scratches –

 _Sorry…_ **_not sorry_ **

Grace screams, and the wires go wild…

 

 **Scene:** Back in the second engineering room, we see Sara, Amaya, and Stein still passed out on the floor. Beyond them, the lever is still lit up faintly in the lights, and there’s a clinking noise. Grace’s wires, primed with needles and electric shocks, begin to snake out and sluggishly make their inexorable way to the unconscious Amaya.

There’s a groan – Stein is coming through. He coughs and opens his eyes, dizzy and disorientated – and sees the wires slipping across the floor.

“No…” he says weakly, and struggles to move. “No..!”

A piece of the broken door is close by him. He catches a hold on it and pushes himself shakily to his knees. The wires are getting closer and closer – they’ve almost reached Amaya now –

“Get away from her, you – BITCH!”

Stein slams the sharp edge of the door on the wires, severing their heads. They give a weak little fuzzy noise and lay still. Stein gasps for breath, trying to regain his strength, before he sees more tiny panels opening up around the ceiling. Instead of being frightened this time, however, he sets his jaw, and manages to stand. Sara and Amaya begin to stir, coughing, as Stein takes one shaky step after the other to the lever, reaching it in moments and grasping it firmly. With a hoarse voice he calls out to the intercom.

“Mick!” he shouts. “Jax, Ray! I’m at the lever! Just tell me when!”

Nobody answers. Stein is left gripping the lever, watching as wires, dozens of them, begin to snake towards him again. He swallows thickly, and fiercely faces them down as they dart towards him –

And are batted forcefully away by Sara, who has her baton and knives out and ready. Amaya stands as well, the spirit of a lioness encasing her – both of them are worse for wear, but ready for a fight, and they grin at Stein, nodding. As more wires come, they brace themselves…

 

 **Scene:** Back in the control deck, Mick is still unconscious. Like noise through cotton wool, sound comes spinning in to him –

_\- ick -! Wake – wake u – ick, wake – she’s –_

The world slowly comes back into dizzying focus, swimming and spinning. We see Mick’s unconscious face, then, between one moment and the next, his eyes flare open and he sucks in a wild breath, forceful enough that it vaults him off the floor. He realises abruptly that wires have snuck around his shoulders and are about to pierce his neck, and he grunts, wide-eyed, and pulls them apart. 

“Stop that,” says Grace, who’s beginning to fray at the edges. Mick barely glances at her and rolls to his knees, managing to make back up to the console, where he begins to work again. “Dave. Stop it.”

“I ain’t Dave, code-for-brains,” says Mick, and he speaks into the intercom as he’s working. “Anybody else alive out there?”

Stein responds, voice crackling. “Mr. Rory, thank heavens! We’re at the lever, but these damned wires –”

Sara yells. “You’ve gotta hurry it up! What about Jax?”

“He’s alive,” says Stein. “But I don’t –”

“Just hold tight,” interrupts Mick, eyeing up the dozens of wires that are beginning to seethe around the edges of the room. “The kid’ll pull through. Just another minute and we’ll be outta here.”

“You CAN’T!” wails Grace. “You’re my crew! You’re _my_ crew! Why are you always _fighting me!”_

“Your crew is dead, Ghostie – you killed ‘em,” says Mick, stabbing at the console as he tries to cancel out the green symbols. He stomps on a wire before it has the chance to inject him.

“No! I preserved them! We needed the data – they were trying to leave – the Captain – Dave, Dave, you said – you said –”

_Grace_

A hologram spontaneously appears – it’s the Captain, and he takes Grace into his arms. But it’s clearly a recording she’s playing herself, as the voice is glitched and the image is frayed around the edges. The hologram begins to speak, and despite himself Mick pauses and watches.

 _You’re the only one I trust, Grace,_ it says.

“I trust you too,” she replies, falling against his chest.

_This is the only way we can be together_

“I know,” she says. “I did what you asked. I thought – I thought – you said – the mission was _paramount,_ this mission was _eternal_ – but flesh – and data –”

_I know. You didn’t want me to widen your parameters, did you? But I was right, wasn’t I? Everything was so much clearer after your cleansing_

“He reprogrammed you,” says Mick flatly. Grace glares at him.

“He opened my eyes,” she says.

“Ah, shit,” says Mick, and grabs a hunk of wiring from underneath the console. Grace shrieks, and the Captain hologram freezes and flickers.

“Stop that!” she cries.

“You stop!” snaps Mick in return, letting go of the wires to work at the console. Numbers and symbols fly by him and his eyes track each movement, jabbing the screen at intervals. “If you think I’m your Captain then do what I say! Cut the crap!”

Suddenly, Grace appears in the middle of the panel Mick has been working on, an angry frown on her face.

“You don’t just get to change your mind, Dave,” she says, hand plunging into the panel. “Not after what you made me do.”

The symbols go wild and sparks begin to fly. Mick backs away and is immediately caught by wires, restrained tightly. “Dammit…” he grits out, straining towards the panel. “Just – another – bit –”

Grace moves away from the panel and circles around him, moving once more towards the hologram of her Captain. “You _are_ my crew,” she says. “You just don’t remember it yet. I’ve saved your brain scans, and once the memories are uploaded, we’ll be together again.”

“You killed him,” says Mick. “Killed your own Captain.”

“It was the only way to be together,” she says. “I am ageless. The mission was paramount. But humans age and die. Your plan was wonderful, Dave.” She closes her eyes and relaxes against her Captain’s chest. “It’s all coming together at last…I just needed a bit of patience…”

Abruptly, the Captain’s arms lock around Grace, holding her immobile. Her eyes widen and her form glitches – she’s been frozen.

“Couldn’t have put it better myself,” the Captain drawls, and he winks at Mick, who stares. “Go, Mick! We don’t have much time!”

With the wires loosening, Mick doesn’t look a gift horse in the mouth – he pulls himself free and darts to the screen he was working on, where silver symbols are slowly taking over green. There’s still a fight though, and the green is encroaching on the silver.

“Gideon…” Mick breathes, glancing back at the hologram. He shouts into the intercom: “Kid! Haircut! You’d better start moving or I’ll kick your asses myself! Glasses, get ready with your end!”

Stein responds with an affirmative, but there’s nothing from Jax and Ray. Mick grits his teeth, watching Grace’s hologram begin to stutter again, watching the Captain hologram lose resolution, the wires beginning to stir, the green eating up the silver code –

“Now or never!” he shouts, and presses down on the keypad. “Pull the levers! Now!!”

 

 **Scene:** In the second engineering room, Stein begins to pull, with Amaya and Sara providing help when it becomes clear that age has made it stick. It slowly begins to move, and the effects are immediate – the lights start flashing, and they begin coughing again.

“We’re losing air!” says Sara.

 

 **Scene:** In the control deck, Mick slams his fist on the side of the console, trying to type as quick as he can. “We need both levers!” he shouts.

 

 **Scene:** In the first engineering room, we see the lever, and hear Mick’s voice come out through the intercom: “You two better get your asses in gear, or we’re losing all our air in – 3 – 2 –”

Both Jax’s and Ray’s hands land on the lever, and they immediately begin to pull. They surface into sight and put their backs into it, despite sweaty faces and heaving, out of breath chests. Jax yells. “COME – OONNNN -!”

 

 **Scene:** In the control deck, Mick shouts the same thing as the silver code begins to overtake the green, and Grace’s form begins to shake, a high-pitched scream emitting from her –

In the second engineering room, all three of them are yelling with the efforts of pulling down the lever as the wires creep towards them and up their bodies –

Then – in a single moment – both levers flip – there’s a massive clunking noise – Grace shrieks “NO!!” – the lights go off and there’s silence for a moment –

And then there’s a healthy hum, and the lights slowly come back on. Gone is the dim, unhealthy green-yellow, replaced with a healthy blue-silver that gradually fills up the entire ship. We see different sections, different rooms and hallways, all filling up with light. Outside the ship, the frame is no longer dull and ominous – as the lights come on it becomes streaked with silver and blue, and beneath the wear and tear the colour is a light, innocuous grey. We slowly follow the length of the ship before going back inside, where everyone is gasping for breath and recovering in the aftermath. The wires lay dead, and in the second engineering room, Sara, Amaya, and Stein share a smile and a laugh before slumping together. In the first engineering room, Ray and Jax have collapsed by the lever and are breathing heavily. Ray glances over at Jax and catches his eye.

“What…you’re out of breath?” Ray manages, and taps Jax’s arm. “You need to work out more, buddy.” Jax just snorts and grins, tapping Ray back and shaking his head.

 

 **Scene:** Back in the control deck, Mick is leaning heavily on the panel he’s been working from; the white code is now running through every screen.

“Gideon..?” he calls out.

“Here, Mr Rory,” comes Gideon’s familiar voice.

“And Ghostie?”

“She’s been contained, with some assistance,” says Gideon, and Mick grunts.

“Don’t mention it,” he says. “Just one more thing.”

“Yes, Mr Rory?”

“Get us the hell outta here.”

“With sincere pleasure.”

 

 **Scene:** An idyllic, sunny spot, clearly miles away from anywhere. Green vales and forests run for miles and miles, and the sky is a clear swathe of blue. The Waverider is settled inside a little clearing, and the crew are standing beneath an enormous tree, looking out at a glittering, flawless lake. Sara touches her comm.

“Gideon,” she says. “You’re sure this location is secure?”

“Absolutely,” comes Gideon’s reply. “This spot will remain untouched for at least another two thousand years, and it has never been farmed or dug up in any way.”

Sara nods. “All right then.” She looks over to the side, and we see eight holes in the ground, roughly rectangular. The team have dug graves.

“Best get to work,” she says.

 

 **Scene:** It’s the same spot, but it’s evening time now, and Sara’s sitting by the graves, underneath the tree, watching the rest of the team relax by the lake. Their cheers and laughter, and the splashing of water as they dive and swim, can be heard even at a distance. A gentle breeze stirs the leaves of the tree she’s resting against. She hears footsteps and sees Mick walk past, carrying a little bundle in his hand. He doesn’t see her at first, but as he gets closer to the graves, he glances up, sees her, and pauses. She nods to the bundle.

“What’cha got there?” she says, stretching her legs out. Mick glances down at it, obviously debating.

“It’s Ghostie,” he says eventually, unwrapping the bundle to show a little silver sphere, just big enough to fit inside the palm of his hand. “What’s left of her, anyway, according to Gideon.”

“Gideon put her in storage?” asks Sara, and Mick shrugs.

“Just temporary. She’ll dissolve eventually...that Captain of hers butchered her code. And I thought the Time Masters drove _me_ nuts.”

“Mick –” Sara starts, but stops when Mick just shakes his head and kneels by a grave.

“Gideon scraped the ship clean,” he says. “She tell you what happened?”

Sara shakes her head. “A bit. She said the ship was called the Mosaic. That it was lost to time – literally. They sent it to map out the timestream; the mission was impossible, of course, but he refused to listen. Refused to turn back. And the Captain…he manipulated – Grace. He wanted her to put the crew in stasis and brainwash them into following orders – when they got too old to continue the mission, they’d have the brain scans and transfer them onto another group of people. But the code corrupted, and she…” Sara stops, glancing at the graves.

“Yeah,” says Mick, glancing down at the silver orb. “Learned about the Mosaic in Assassin Brainwashing School.” He pauses, passing the orb from one hand to another. “Found the Captain’s log. Talk about a depressing read.”

“I’ll bet,” says Sara.

Mick grunts. “Mosaic was the closest thing to a ghost ship legend the Time Masters had. Stuffy bastards. ‘Course, the Captain was stupid enough to think that just ‘cause they’ve got a boss it means they’ve gotta stick to every damn rule that’s set out for ‘em. Just because you’ve got a boss, it doesn’t mean they’re always right. You gotta _listen_ to your crew.”

There’s silence for a moment. Sara leans on her knees, and watches Mick for a moment.

“Is that the way it was with you and Snart?” she asks, quietly, and Mick draws back, blinking hard, hand suddenly gripping the ball. “Sorry,” she says. “It’s just…we don’t seem to talk about him at all anymore.”

Mick shakes his head sharply. “Somethin’ –” He stops. Sara doesn’t speak, and he continues after a moment. “Just – somethin’ Grace said. Back on the ship.”

“Oh?”

“Just…about us having the right amount of people for the brainwashing.”

Sara sits up a little straighter. “What about it?”

Mick frowns. “Said we were the right amount, but there are only seven of us, including Gideon. There were eight of her crew.”

“She must have thought there was someone else on the Waverider,” suggests Sara. Mick just shrugs, dismissing it.

“Ah, whatever. She was sick. Didn’t know up from down in the end.” He looks down at the graves again. His gaze has barely wandered from them. “Don’t seem right to bury her with him,” he says after a few moments. His hands trail over the sphere. “He poisoned her, manipulated her. Made her ignore her own programming. She was try’na save the crew, get them out of there. But it wasn’t a problem for him to reprogram _property.”_

He blinks hard again, swallows, turning the sphere over and over. “But this crew was _her_ crew, for better or worse,” he says, finally. “And she gave a damn. There’s no other place she belongs.”

He presses the sphere into the dirt until it disappears entirely, and then he and Sara sit there, in silence, as the wind picks up around them, and the day goes on…

 

 **Scene:** Back in the Waverider, the team crowds in, damp from the lake and clearly relaxed after their harrowing experience, heading back to their rooms. Jax is stretching his arms over his head and grinning.

“Man, is it good to be back!” he says, and Ray grins in agreement. Amaya pushes her hair back.

“I just really need a shower,” she says.

“Agreed,” says Sara. “Can I just take a moment to thank you, Gideon? You really had our backs there.”

“Indeed,” adds Stein. “We really don’t give you half the credit you deserve.”

“Your thanks are appreciated,” replies Gideon cheerfully. “I’m always happy to help.”

“Not _entirely_ true,” says Ray. “Sometimes you’re very happy not to tell us things, let us screw up, and then laugh at us.”

“I assure you, I retain perfect control over my audio settings. You would never hear me laugh,” replies Gideon, and the team laughs, walking on to their rooms. Mick slips away, opening his door and closing it, leaning against it in sheer exhaustion. When he lifts his head, he freezes – Len is there.

“No,” he says, before the vision has a chance to say anything. “Just – no. Not right now. Just can it.”

He strides into the bathroom and slams the door. The vision of Len is left behind, eyebrows raised and a sour smile on his face.

“Well,” he says. “That’s what a guy gets for trying to help out, huh? So much for good deeds.”

Len looks to the side and sees that the door is still open a crack, and he tuts. “Gideon, since we made _such_ a good team back on the ship,” he drawls. “Be a pal and close that door for me, would you?”

“Certainly, Mr Snart,” replies Gideon, and the door shuts properly. “Will there be anything else?”

Len gives a long, slow smile…

“No, Gideon,” he replies. “Not for the moment…”

 

 **Scene:** A black screen, and a few seconds pause – we then see the Legion in a dimly-lit, nondescript room; Eobard and Darhk are standing, and Queen Bee is lounging in a chair, looking bored.

“You’d better be right about _this,_ at least,” snaps Darhk, and Eobard gives him a strained glare.

“For an immortal, you’re awfully impatient,” he replies. “Mr Hunter knows what he’s doing.”

“Well, you’ll pardon me for remaining sceptical given the efficacy of your plans thus far,” snipes Darhk, but as Eobard opens his mouth to reply, another voice cuts in.

“Gotta say – wasn’t expecting such a _frosty_ reception,” says the voice.

We see all three of the Legion turn to see Rip, smirking darkly at the doorway – but it isn’t him that’s spoken. Rip steps to the side to reveal another Len, decked out in familiar cold gear, gun dramatically perched on his shoulder. He slowly smiles –

And the screen goes black.

 

**CREDITS ROLL – THE END**


	2. Chapter 2

 

See on Tumblr [here](http://kickingshoes.tumblr.com/post/165370500682/art-for-the-twelfth-lotrewrite-written-by)

 

Kickingshoes' tarot card for Episode 12 - they've created a full set of Major Arcana based on the episodes! See more of their art [here!](http://kickingshoes.tumblr.com/)

 

 


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